UNSW Business School Hackathon a success

Eighty high school students have learnt to start a business in 48 hours at a UNSW Australia ‘hackathon’ event.

The annual Initiate 48 event saw Year 7 to 12 students turn into budding entrepreneurs and learn about the basics of business – and create an app, in the UNSW Business School’s ‘The Place’ flipped classrooms.

Co-Op student Victor Zhang, who is studying BCom/BIS, is one of the founders of the Initiate 48 event. The initiative, which was started when Zhang was at school, aims to bridge the gap between high school and the real world by equipping students with appropriate business skills, encouragement and a look beyond convention.

Judging panel member, Associate Dean for Digital Innovation Professor Nick Wailes said, “I was delighted that the Business School could sponsor the event and make our facilities available to host it.”

The winning group created ‘Carspot’ – an app that uses NFC technology to make it easy to remember where your vehicle is left in a car park. The team will now be given a place in the finals of this year’s Peter Farrell Cup competition, which will be held at the end of November, where the first prize is $15,000.​​

China’s HNA Group recently sent more than 70 of its executives from Haikou Meilan International Airport to Sydney for a 10-day “Business of the Future” leadership program – a collaboration between AGSM and the UNSW School of Aviation.